Asia Cup 2022 moved to United Arab Emirates: 'Now who will stop Babar and Rizwan?'

The Asia Cup scheduled for this year has been shifted from Sri Lanka to United Arab Emirates.

On Thursday, Board of Cricket in India (BCCI) president Saru Ganguly informed the media about the shifting of the Asia Cup from Sri Lanka to the United Arab Emirates.

Saru Ganguly said that the Asia Cup will be held in the United Arab Emirates, which is the only place where it does not rain.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board informed the Asian Cricket Council that 'the Sri Lankan Cricket Board is unable to hold the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka due to the ongoing political and economic tension in the country.'

The Asia Cup will start from August 27, but the full schedule of the tournament is yet to be announced.

Teams from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh will participate in the Asia Cup.

After the transfer of Asia Cup from Sri Lanka to United Arab Emirates, there is a lot of excitement among Pakistan team fans.

A user on the social networking website Twitter shared a picture of Babar Azam and wrote that 'You are looking at a person who will be the highest run scorer in the Asia Cup.'

Citing the excellent performance of the Pakistan cricket team in the T20 World Cup to be held in the United Arab Emirates in 2021, they are pinning high hopes on the Pakistani players in the Asia Cup.

Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam is at number one on ICC T20 rankings while Mohammad Rizwan is at number two.

On the other hand, compared to other teams, Pakistan has more experience of playing in UAE as UAE has been the second home ground of Pakistan cricket team.

In the T20 World Cup match against India, Pakistan defeated India for the first time in any World Cup match due to the excellent batting of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

This will be the first time since 2021 that the teams of Pakistan and India will compete against each other.

Interestingly, two matches are likely to be played between Pakistan and India in the Asia Cup, but if both the teams reach the final, the total number of matches between the two teams in the tournament will increase to three.

Similarly, in this year's T20 World Cup, both traditional rivals will face each other.

The Asia Cup has been held in the UAE thrice before and India has surprisingly won the tournament all three times.

Pakistan has won the Asia Cup only twice so far, while defending champions India have won the Asia Cup seven times, and Sri Lanka five times.